1 in 5 unfit to be parents

ONE in five Australian mums and dads is unfit to be a parent, according to child-health expert and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley.  She says they either lack the means or the life skills to raise children or cannot devote enough time to their kids because of excessive work commitments.

She said a national effort - on the scale of the climate-change movement - was needed to protect the futures of Australian children.  She said:

"There are a worrying number of threats to children’s health in society today.

"If we don’t respond to these challenges … we will be looking at our generation, my generation, as being the last generation that lives longer than its parents.

"If you look at the overall trend in many problems, they are actually showing no improvement - and some of them are getting dramatically worse."

and also:

"There’s this increasing group of parents who are just not making ends meet. They don’t have the capacity to be parents.”

"There are a lot of people who are going to find it difficult to parent."

I actually suspect she’s understating the problem ….there are more than 20% of people who are not suitable to be parents.  You only have to look at some of the kids you see around the place, and read the stories of neglect and abuse.

One thing that really concerns me for the future is that more often than not its those who are unsuitable who are having the most children, the welfare dependent, those with drug, alcohol, gambling problems, those who are incapable of maintaining stable family relationships.  Over time, we see children who are 2nd/3rd/4th generation welfare dependents, who have never known a stable home environment, who are exposed to domestic violence, ever changing parents and step-parents, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of attention to their education, healthcare and proper nutrition, and the absence of good role models.  You see feral parents having feral kids, who screw things up for other people – for example by disrupting the schooling of those kids who want to learn.

Its sad that the only qualification needed to be a parent is that your boy/girl bits work as intended.  We need training and skills testing, and licenses, to do things like drive a car, or work in most types of job.  But parenting children, which is undoubtedly far more complex and carries greater responsibilities, is open to just about anyone.

Not only that, but here in Australia, our government actively encourages people to have babies – by paying them a baby bonus of $5,000 for each child.  This is something I’ve never agreed with. I think it encourage irresponsible people to breed when they shouldn’t be …. everyone hears anecdotes about plasma TVs and the like being bought with the money.  How widespread this is is debatable but undoubtedly it does happen.   The bonus is paid as a lump sum (except if you’re under 18, in which case it is paid over 6 months in instalments).  I think paying it in instalments, for example as a top up of family allowance for the first 2 years of the child’s life, would be a good move.  I think placing conditions on it would be good, for example successful completion of parenting education prior to the birth of the child, and the meeting of certain milestones after birth, eg attending with the child for baby health clinic checkups at specified intervals.  I don’t think its unreasonable for governments to specify conditions for getting paid taxpayers’ money, particularly conditions which are sensible, reasonable and aimed at ensuring the money is used properly.

I’d go further and take positive steps to stop people who are clearly unsuitable from breeding.  For example, people who are known or suspected to be substance abusers, or who have prior history of child abuse.  Where these people are (as is the case often) on welfare, make it conditional on them taking suitable contraceptive measures (why not have Centrelink - or at least doctors on their behalf - instal contraceptive implants and replace them however often that is required?).

Sure thing, Captain Underpants

Former NSW Police Minister, Matt Brown, denies he was drunk at the office party where his behaviour cost him his job this week.  He said the party was marked by stupidity, not drunkenness.

According to reports, Mr Brown had stripped down to his "very brief" underpants as he danced to loud "Oxford Street" techno music, while standing on a green leather couch in his office.

He said he remembered taking off his shirt, and dancing, but did not remember taking off his pants.

"I don’t recall parading around in my underwear," he said.

"I know I took my shirt off and I know I did have a dance. I was working off steam in the privacy of my own office with workmates. It was harmless fun."

He has strenuously denied getting his gear off and mounting the chest of fellow MP Noreen Hay while announcing to her daughter he was "titty f—ing" her mother.  Hay has supported his denials that this took place.  However party sources say she complained of a bruised cheek in the week after the party, and blamed it on Mr Brown’s elbow.  Mr Brown said he did not know what had caused the bruise, but it may have been sustained on the side of his office couch.

His denials, however, seem a bit lukewarm.  The activities that had been alleged - that is, the simulated sex with Ms Hay - were "generally not true" but he did not want to "go into specifics".

Mr Brown resigned after meeting with NSW premier Nathan Rees, only 3 days after he was appointed to the Police Ministry.  Mr Rees said his reaction to the incident was "beyond anger, gross disappointment".  Seems the premier did not have much confidence in Ms Hay, as she was dumped from her parliamentary secretary role a few days after Mr Brown resigned.  Mr Rees stood by his view that Ms Hay’s account of what happened at the party in early June was "incomplete" as he announced she would also cease as his representative on the NSW ALP’s powerful administrative committee. But the Premier claimed his decision to remove Ms Hay was not a punishment related to her behaviour.  Yeah, sure!

Now for the proof that Brown is fudging the facts in claiming he wasn’t drunk.

Still here

I’m not talking just about me, but the world in general.  As of now, the world has not been sucked into a black hole, created by the CERN experiment that commenced operations in Switzerland a few days ago.  One of the fears held by some people was that the experiments using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which basically fires beams of atoms around in opposite directions and smashes them into each other with the aim being to see what comes out of the atomic particles when they are smashed, would generate so much energy that mini black holes would be formed which might suck the Earth into them.

Well, that hasn’t happened so far.  But that didn’t help a girl in India who apparently committed suicide due to fears about the world ending.  She jumped the gun, so to speak …. should have waited to see what happened first.  Also, as posed by this article, why would she choose to die painfully by drinking pesticide, versus being painlessly vapourised in a black hole.

As for what the LHC is, and what it is supposed to prove for its price tag of $10 billion, here is a useful summary.

Still cashing in on Princess Diana

Its been 11 years since she was killed in that Paris car crash, but someone has found yet another way to profit from her death.  Turns out the company that owns the car she died in wants it back – so they can sell it.

The car, which cost £70,000 new, could fetch as much as £1 million, according to press reports, and that informal offers to buy the wreck had come from all over the world, mainly the US.

Why would you want to buy a car wreck – just because someone famous died in it?  What is the motive for wanting it – for the memories of Diana?  More likely to put it on show and charge people for the privilege of gawking at it.  Perhaps cut up the back seat, seat belt and carpet and sell swatches of blood stains as souvenirs?

Another of those “Oh Shit!” moments

A couple in the southern Sydney suburb of Miranda yesterday were having a spa bath installed in their newly renovated home.  This required a crane to lift the spa over the house and lower it into the bathroom (which must have been near the back of the house).  Graham and Jacqueline Leech were standing on their back deck guiding the crane driver as he lowered the spa into the bathroom when they noticed it moving too far to the right.    The crane then toppled over  - the boom crashed through the length of the house, lodging in the roof and also ripping down power lines.

The two-bedroom sandstone and weatherboard home - which the couple had nearly finished renovating - was completely destroyed.

Hope everyone is well insured!

Crime wave sweeps Adelaide

Some people do have serious issues about breastfeeding.  So much that this heinous crime occupies the resources of security personnel and police in Adelaide.

Sharleen Salmon was followed by police and security officers through Marion shopping mall then questioned after a complaint over her expressing breast milk in a parents room. 

"They told me that a little kid had been running around in the parents room and had briefly seen what I was doing and had complained to its mum,’’

she said.

"The mum then complained to security and the cleaner came in to inspect what I was doing. They told me the complaint was that there was a topless woman eating her lunch in the parents room.

"It’s tough enough that I have to do this during my break, but for a complaint to be made about me doing it, is really upsetting.’’

Breastfeeding Association spokeswoman Tracey Kelly said many people were ignorant about expressing milk:

“This mother was very humiliated and something like this could have seen the end of her expressing milk or working.

“It’s already very stressful and then to have someone complain about it is absolutely traumatising. This centre, like many shopping centres, doesn’t even have a lockable door for mothers to go behind, they just have curtains.’’

Ms Salmon has made a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission and is awaiting a response.

Now I would have thought among other things, that:

1. the mum who owned the kid who was running around in the parents’ room ought to have known better than to let the kid roam wild in there
2. that she would have known that breastfeeding is a natural function and have been able to explain that to her child
3. that the cleaner, security and police should have told her to mind her own business and not waste everyone’s time.

Lagos calling – plenty of people listening

According to police, Australians are losing $36m a year to Nigerian scammers.  And the problem is more extensive than that, because similar frauds are going through other countries.  The police say they struggle to get a handle on the issue because many incidents went unreported – no doubt people being scammed are often too embarrassed to own up to their stupidity.

It just staggers me to see people still falling for these scams.  To not know about them, you’d need to be living in a cave or something, or be incredibly stupid, gullible, greedy or all of those.  Hard to protect some people from themselves, it seems.

Family feud - Gaza style

Hatred clearly runs strongly in Gaza. How’s this for a family feud? 29 dead, 60 wounded, plus homes and businesses burnt down. And its still not finished!

This feud is between the al-Masri’s and the Abu Taha’s. It started in 2005 when one of the former stopped at a roadside stall to buy a mango. The stallholder didn’t have change for $5, so the buyer did what most normal people would do - shot and killed the him.

“We want to kill one more to be equal,” a member of the Abu Taha clan told a researcher for International Crisis Group. But then the toll moved to 10 Abu Taha and 11 Masris dead - and the Masris vowed revenge.

Those Masri’s are an argumentative lot. In 2006 they went to war with another clan because one of the Masris, while driving a donkey-cart, collided with a car driven by a member of the equally powerful Kafarneh clan. 6 people were killed as neighbours who had lived side-by-side for decades turned guns on each other in the name of clan honour. Houses were sand-bagged and women who had married across clan lines on both sides were locked up while hundreds of gunmen fought it out for two months. The ongoing feud prompted the Masris to erect a four-metre-high wall around their enclave in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

They are fighting on other fronts too, vowing to kill members of the Dughmush clan. Plus they are at loggerheads with Hamas, the political party/terrorist organisation that now controls Gaza. A clan leader said it needed to avenge the death of three of its fighters during the Hamas takeover, and said “the vendetta remains outstanding”.

Happy families they are not!

Technorati Tags: Gaza, Masri, Abu Taha, Kafarneh, Dughmush, clans, Hamas, Palestine

Eamon and Stephanie sitting in a tree

Who else is sick of the major Australian news story of the last week? The breakup of the relationship between Olympic swimmers, Eamon Sullivan and Stephanie Rice. I know I am. The TV news has been going on about it for days. Big fucking deal I say.

Both of them are clearly focussed on their sport at the moment, Sullivan appearing in a photo spread in GQ Australia, and Rice in FHM.

God knows why she’d want to be on the front cover of a wank magazine for teenage boys.

But regardless, I’d have thought these athletes would be better off getting results on the board in Beijing then going for the publicity, rather than the other way around. Seems arse about to me, and puts extra pressure on them to perform.

Personally I don’t think Australians should set expectations too high for our Olympic team - just a little reminder that a gold medal is their entry ticket back into the country should be motivation enough!!!

Technorati Tags: Stephanie Rice, Eamon Sullivan, Olympics, Beijing

Now that is a lot of pussy

Have you ever seen a bigger one?

Technorati Tags: big pussy, obese cat, Princess Chunk